The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

Favorite Book This Week: Jimmy Olsen All books new in stores on 3/30/11 Age of X: Universe #1 Avengers Writer: Simon Spurrier, Pencils: Khoi Pham, Inks: Tom Palmer, Colors: Sonia Oback Spider-Man Writer: Jim McCann, Artist: Paul Davidson, Colors: Antonio Fabela Neat idea: this issue (one of two) follows other Marvel Universe characters in the alt-world of Age of X. The Avengers are broken, evil and/or deranged. Sue Storm's story is particularly fractured and interesting. I look forward to the second half. It will hopefully link up with the intro frame from this, which implies nasty things for the Avengers' fate next time. The Spiderman-story is complete in this issue, and it's short, sweet, sad and satisfying. American Vampire #13 (Ghost War Part One) Writer: Scott Snyder, Artist: Rafel Albuquerque Colors: Dave McCaig Oooh, I like this new story arc. The focus is on Pearl's husband Henry, and his story is poignant and complex. My only complaint i...

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and The Bookish This weeks list: Top Ten Authors That Deserve More Recognition Okay, there are a few possible directions to take this. First I'll cover a couple folks who deserve more credit for how influential they were, then some semi-obscure to obscure authors I'm fond of, and finally I'll move on to some up-and-comers. Onward! 1. Lord Dunsany One of the granddaddies of all genre, who has somewhat fallen out of common reading. If you're a fan of fantasy, and you haven't read The King of Elfland's Daughter , you have some homework to get to. (Also see my review here ) 2. Raymond Chandler Nothing simple about his brooding pulp detective novels; this is prose so sharp you could cut yourself, and he deserves more readers from all corners of the reading world. 3. Peter S. Beagle I've seen enough copies of the recent collection of his short fiction ( review here ) at the library to think that people are read...

Before the Storm: Eden Trilogy, Book 1 Marian Perera, ebook 2010 Premise: Alex is a concubine in the stronghold of Stephen Garnath, who is trying to bring the scattered baronies under his military might. That is, until she's given away to Robert, possibly the only man who might stand up to Stephen's armies. Alex and Robert have to decide whether they can trust each other long enough to figure out why she was placed with him, before his province is overrun. I found this a fascinating book because of how willing it is to live in the margins. At times it's like a romance, but it has a strong action plot-line. It toys with steam-based technology in a magic/medieval setting without ever stepping into steampunk cliches. I really liked that. Alex is great fun to read, Robert solid and well developed, and I loved the wide range of the supporting cast, especially the other women. The plot is fast-paced and fun, the romance convincing and sexy, the politics intrig...

Before I get to the Blog Hop, a bit of history. Today (3/25/11) is the 100 year anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Out of that tragedy came many of the fire safety, work safety and child labor laws that many of us now take for granted. Honor the 146 women and girls who died: remember their story. Read up on  Wikipedia    Summary from  Feministing , focused on the role of unions Article from WNYC: From the Triangle Tragedy, Unprecedented Reform Watch the American Experience Documentary  (This is really great, if you have the time) (And now to change tone entirely...) This is Follow Friday, hosted by  Parajunkee's View Today's Question is: Q. Inspired by the inane twitter trend of #100FACTSABOUTME, give us five BOOK RELATED silly facts about you. 1. My taste in media is somewhat diverse, but universally geeky. For example: my two absolute favorite comic book series that I'm collecting right now are Darkwing D...

Favorite Issue this week : New Mutants #23 All books new in stores on 3/23/11 New Mutants #23 (Age of X Chapter 4) Writer: Mike Carey, Pencils: Steve Kurth Inker: Allen Martinez, Colors: Brian Reber I enjoyed this issue: decent pace of new revelations, good character beats, pretty artwork. I'm continuing to like this alt-world plot and all the character tweaks. I thought the minor characters' reactions to Magneto apparently killing Rogue and Gambit (at the end of the previous issue) were really good. I like Legacy/Rogue a lot. Between teaming her up with Gambit, and using Kitty as another focus character, this event is hitting a lot of my favorite X-Men soft spots. Supergirl #62 Writer: James Peaty, Artist: Bernard Chang Colorist: Blond I had to read this issue twice just to understand what was going on. That's never a good sign. For all the running around the characters did, I felt like very little happened. Not much in the way of new info this issue, a...

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish This Week's Prompt: Top Ten Bookish Pet Peeves (all those things that annoy you in a story, with book covers, bookstores...) Ranting is fun! In no particular order: 1: Perspective Switching This drives me up the walls. If the author is writing in Close Third Person, and switches which character the reader is following, there had better be a chapter break, or at least a section break. And if it switches, worst of all, in the middle of a scene, there had better be a darn good reason. I sometimes think that authors who do this have problems conveying what a character is thinking without being 'in their head', and that's just lazy writing. Every so often there will be an author who can pull it off, but mostly I hate it. 2: Confusing Names You can check out my entire post on naming for details. I should add that I understand. Names are hard, and creating names that work together, that sound like they...

Dawn (Xenogenesis, Book 1) Octavia E. Butler, 1987 Premise: After a horrible war, few humans were left alive. Lilith Iyapo lived through the war, only to awaken in a featureless room. Who brought her here, are they rescuers or captors or something more complicated? And what plans do they have for the remnants of humanity? Dawn is a brilliant, moving book. I realized that I had never read anything by Octavia Butler - one of the few highly successful African-American women writers of Science Fiction - so I set out to remedy that. I'm very glad that I did. Lilith is a strong, complex character, and the reader sees the plot unfold entirely from her perspective. Her struggles - within herself, with the Oankali, with other humans - prove her to be smart, adaptable, human and fallible. How her personal convictions grow and shift while she learns more about her situation make up the greatest part of the drama. It won't be giving much away to tell you that Lilith and t...

Follow Friday is hosted by  Parajunkee's View Today's Question is: How did you come up with your blog name? I basically answered this on my About  page, but it started with The Blue Fairy's Workshop , where I post my custom toys and dolls as well as other art projects. The Bookshelf has grown to be a much bigger site, but it started out as an extension of my first blog. The Book Blogger Hop is hosted at Crazy-For-Books.com Today's Question is: Do you read only one book at a time, or do you have several going at once? It depends, but I will often read more than one book at once. I might have one in my bag and one by the bed, or pause what I'm reading on my Kindle to dash through something that is about to be due back at the library. Sometimes I try to finish one before starting another, especially if I'm finding the book hard to concentrate on, but it's not a rule. 

Scent of Magic Andre Norton, 1998 Premise: Willadene has a talent for scent, and finally manages to leave her life as a kitchen drudge for her distant cousin to become an apprentice herbalist.  She has to master the skill quickly if she wants to help her mistress protect the Duke's daughter from the evil forces gathering in the land. This is a decent character-centered adventure fantasy.  There's nothing groundbreaking, but nothing boring either. The characters are well articulated and interesting: Willadene, timid but insightful, Halwice the Herbmistress is kind and secretive, the Duke who is uncomfortable with ruling, his daughter, dealing with suddenly being called upon to be a public figure, the Chancellor, loyal even against the Duke's outward wishes, and others. I like the idea of scent-based magic.  Something as simple as switching the sense the narration focuses on alters the feel of the story strongly. It doesn't come together by the end as much ...

Favorite Book This Week : Avengers Academy #11 All books were new in stores on 3/16/11 Avengers Academy #11 Writer: Christos Gage, Penciler: Tom Raney Inker: Scott Hanna, Colorist: Jeromy Cox A good issue, with a few awkward art moments. There was one sequence in which I couldn't understand what was happening now and what was flashback, and a splash page where the perspective was fairly strange, but other than that and some weird faces here and there, the art on this title is better than it's been. It says a lot about how intriguing the characters and the writing is that I put up with the spotty art. There were some really good moments for Veil in this issue, and while I don't have the Marvel background to appreciate the villain they were bringing back, the information didn't feel overwhelming. I really liked the crazy space-lady that most of the issue centered on. It had a very fun hook for the next issue, and I'll look forward to it. “I knew this woul...

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish This Week's Prompt: Top Ten Characters I'd Want As Family Members This is a difficult prompt for me. I whiled away many an hour when I was young imagining that I was friends with various characters, but today? I'm stumped. I find my difficulty to be two-fold: 1) Most interesting, well-drawn characters are not people you would want to hang out with on a day-to-day basis. In real life, either they would seem to be jerks, totally uninteresting (because you wouldn't actually be involved in the story), have genes you probably don't want, or downright dangerous to the people around them. People who are pleasant to be around often don't make compelling characters. 2) Many books in the genres I read don't deal much with familial relationships outside of parent-child ties or romantic partnership. Plus if the family is involved, they are usually the source of negative drama. I was able to come up w...

The Neon Court Kate Griffin, 2011 New Release! Book provided by the publisher for review via NetGalley NB: Kate Griffin is the adult fiction pen name of Catherine Webb  Okay, first I have to come clean. I didn't request this book for review because I liked the sound of it. I did like the sound of it, it sounded fun and scrappy and not romantic, but I requested it because I found out Ms. Griffin, besides being an author, is a lighting tech. I, when the economy is feeling up to it, am a stage manager, so I feel a certain kinship. Literary Theater Techs Unite! Happily, I quite liked the book, so no harm came of my impulse. Premise: Matthew Swift, Midnight Mayor of London (that's a sort of magical enforcer/leader/diplomat) has just a couple of problems. First, two of the larger magical factions, the Neon Court and the Tribe, are on the brink of war over a murder. Second, an sometime friend of his seems to have a nasty case of should-be-dead-but-somehow-isn'...

Favorite Issue this Week : X-Men Legacy #246 All books were new in stores on 3/9/11 Batgirl # 19 Writer: Bryan Q. Miller Artist: Ramon Bachs A decent issue, but not exceptional for this series. I'm a little sad that we're back to the plotline after such enjoyable side stories as the last two issues. I'm not sold on Steph's crush on the cop yet, but I'll hold my judgment on that for now. Also worth noting: large parts of this issue don't make much sense without the current plot of Birds of Prey and at least knowing the premise of Batman Inc, and I have mixed feelings about the way it's presented here. Birds of Prey #10 Writer: Gail Simone Artist: Inaki Miranda This was almost a really good issue. The dialogue was good, the plot came together nicely, there were kick-ass moments for just about everyone. My biggest problem? The art was just awful; actually distractingly ugly. The cover is gorgeous. The internal art is not. ...

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and The Bookish This Week's Prompt: Top Ten Dynamic Duos "(those bff's, partners in crime, or powerful couples that you just can't forget about)" Ah. Ha. HA HA HA HA HA... 1. Batman and Robin (Bruce and Dick) 2. Batman and Robin (Bruce and Tim) 3. Batman and Robin (Dick and Tim) 4. Batman and Robin (Dick and Damian) 5. Batman and Robin (Bruce and Damian) 6. Batman and Robin (Old Bruce and Carrie) 7. Batman and Catwoman (Bruce and Selina) 8. Batman and Batgirl (Bruce and Barbara)  9. Batman and Batman Beyond (Bruce and Terry) 10. Batman and Superman (Bruce and Clark) Sorry, seriously, where was I? 1: Batman and Robin , really What... you want more details? Okay. The father/son relationship between Bruce and his various sidekicks is one I really love. I mostly like Bruce and Dick or Bruce and Tim, I've also read some Dick and Tim that has a brotherly vibe that I really enjoyed. I've only experienc...

The Fall (Book Two of the Strain Trilogy)  Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan, 2010 Premise: The sequel to The Strain (Previous review, part of a series on vampire literature, is here .) The Master's plans start to come together while scattered humans try to fight back against the increasing vampire plague. Some small spoilers below, especially for the first book. The Fall suffers a little from being the middle book in a trilogy. It's interesting and exciting, but a lot of the middle feels like just setting pieces in motion so they can come into play later. It's still good, but I anticipate the third will be a more satisfying read. It continues to be a great take on vampires. Science and magic and other things I won't name because it would be a spoiler all come together to create vampires that feel both fresh, and like a natural step from earlier versions. (I noted this in The Strain as well, that there's a bit of Dracula , a bit of I Am Lege...

   The Book Blogger Hop is hosted at crazy-for-books.com This week's question is: "Who's your all-time favorite book villain?" Hmmm... there's a couple ways you can go here, and there's no way I'm choosing just one. Some posts I've seen are going with villains that are purely villainous, who are truly evil. For that, I'll have to go with Randall Flagg (from various works of Stephen King, notably The Stand , and The Dark Tower series. He's evil, he might be demonic: a practically immortal force of chaos. From Wikipedia : To King, Flagg is “somebody who’s very charismatic, laughs a lot, [is] tremendously attractive to men and women both, and [is] somebody who just appeals to the worst in all of us.” The second route is the one I often prefer: you can enjoy villains for being well-rounded, for having motivations you understand, even if you don't agree with their actions. These villains sometimes edge over into bei...

Favorite Book this Week : Darkwing Duck Annual All books were new in stores on 3/2/11 Avengers Academy #10 Writer: Christos Gage, Penciler: Sean Chen Inker: Scott Hanna, Colorist: Jeromy Cox The art is more consistent this month, thank goodness. This was a good issue, in which we got more of Veil and Hazmat, both intriguing characters who I am happy to know more about. I liked the cute conceit of seeing bits of the kids' various classes: Superhuman Ethics, Extraterrestrial Culture, Applied Chemistry... Plus, hey! It's Leech! Hazmat's plotline verges on melodramatic, but I found it well done. Darkwing Duck Annual #1 Writer: Ian Brill, Artist: Sabrina Alberghetti Writer: Tad Stones, Artist: James Silvani Fantastic! This double-size, two-story issue hit all the right notes for me. The first story, “Toy With Me” focuses on the return of Quackerjack. He's got a new plan, a new “friend”, a new weapon, and a dangerously dark outlook on life. It's a goo...

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish . This Week's Prompt: Top Ten Books You Just HAD to Buy...But Are Still Sitting on the Bookshelf Hmm. I buy very few books, and even fewer that I haven't read before. I like to take a book out of the library, read it, and if I really like it and want to read it again, maybe I'll buy a copy. I live in a very small apartment, after all. I guess there are a few. Let me look around... 1: The Deed of Paskenarrion, by Elizabeth Moon I read the first volume in this trilogy by getting a free ebook from the Baen Free Library . The local library refused to send me the rest of them, as they were paperbacks. I saw a cheap used copy of the whole trilogy so I picked it up to bump an Amazon order up to $25. I haven't gotten around to reading it, though. 2: The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, by William S. Baring-Gould When I bought this, I didn't realize that much of the analysis is angled toward treating the Holmes stories as if ...